The last…

My cousin in KK sent me three packets of this line of instant pastes…

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…to try and my missus cooked the meat curry…

*Archive photo*

…and then, I tried the asam (tamarind) paste…

…and I would say that I liked both of them.

That left me with the last one – the nyonya seafood curry paste…

…so I used it that day to cook some of the bay ka/tenggiri (mackerel) that was among all the different types of fish that I bought a week or so ago.

I got all the ingredients ready, optional but we usually would add when using these pastes to enhance the taste – one Bombay onion, finely chopped, a few sprigs of curry leaves, two stalks of serai (lemon grass), bruised at the ends…

…a packet of santan (coconut milk) and some brinjal. There were no ladies’ fingers in the fridge so I had to do without…and for fish curry, it would be good to add pineapples too (and tomatoes too perhaps) but there was none.

It turned out pretty good…

…don’t you think?

The fish seller also gave me the head, split into halves…and I still had another one from a week or so earlier so I threw those in as well and served separately…

For one thing, there isn’t all that much in the head of an ikan tenggiri but at least, there is a bit of meat and the cartilages that I could enjoy.

I would say it was very nice and in my younger days, I had heard it said that when eating curry, it would be great to have some salted fish to enjoy with it and of course, the rice. I had some in the freezer so I fried the two slices…

…and even though they started to spread out as soon as they hit the oil (maybe it was too hot), they tasted absolutely heavenly and I don’t know if it was psychological or what but I did feel that the curry tasted nicer!

Thank you once again to my cousin in KK, it was so nice of you to grab these for me and to go through all that trouble to send them over. I enjoyed all three very much but of course, if they ever become available at the shops, the main consideration would be the prices. The others are very nice too, give or take a little…but if you ask the missus, she would swear by these…

– the A1 Mountain Globe pastes, only three types available – curry for meat and fish and rendang. They used to cost a little over RM3.00 each but now, they are going for RM4.00 or more , depending on where you go to…and do not be mistaken by all the A1’s that you will find at the shops and supermarkets – they have that on all the packets, any brand. Look out for the one and only Mountain Globe brand! The rest may not be as nice.